Tread Lightly For You Tread On My Bones

Three days on Gelibolu (Gallipoli) for the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day after call up at fortnight’s notice in the ballot. Both my grandfathers were there, one for nine days, the other for the entire campaign. Guided by a local, Murat, I saw history through his eyes, shared tears more than once, and met his mentor Mustafa, before completing a kind of pilgrimage at the dawn service and memorials. I attempted to capture a few emotions amongst the myriad. Then struggled for a year until I landed on the single word at the end of the penultimate line.

Jeff Brown is a Paediatrician at Palmerston North Hospital and in the community of MidCentral DHB. He is one of those who started The Medicine Stories Project and has summoned up the courage to submit some work of his own, with a raw view of history rather than medicine, at least for this effort.

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